The Great Recession may be gone, but its economic shadow persists as a legacy of enduring consumer thriftiness is changing how many businesses operate.

You'd think a fast-food chain such as Lake Forest-based Del Taco – long known as a place for affordable, plentiful Mexican fare – would be in a sweet spot for this new era. But the chain feels it's time to reinforce its reputation as a budget-friendly stop for food.

"The heritage of our brand is value; it's a great differentiator," CEO Paul Murphy says.

This week, Del Taco rolls out a refreshed menu and restaurant look throughout its 550-store system in 17 states, as well as the "Unfreshing Believable" ad campaign. The efforts include revamped pricing – highlighting menu items as cheap as 50 cents – to modest store redesigns that ran less than $50,000, one-fifth of what might otherwise been the budget.

The challenge is that the value-food business isn't what it used to be. For one, many restaurants know how to play the value card, so it's a crowded field. Industry estimates say as much as one-quarter of all fast-food sales are "deals" – either driven by coupons or in-store specials.

Second, the value audience may have shrunk in recent months as a broad demographic. As the economy has firmed out of the depths of the recession, numerous consumer personalities have emerged. People lucky enough for success are starting to shop with less penny-pinching. Those who have had financial misfortunes are pulling far back, spending-wise.

Look at fiscal slips in early 2013 by two retailing giants – McDonalds and Wal-Mart – as a jump in payroll taxes and overall economic anxiety hurt their sales. Del Taco executives, too, admit seeing a sharp but brief sales dip in mid-January as consumers got suddenly smaller paychecks.

Rather than try to go upscale – as others unsuccessfully tried (Can you say J.C. Penney?) – Del Taco executives are betting that frugality has morphed into a state of mind that stretches across all shopper demographics. To John Cappasola – Del Taco's chief brand officer – today's consumers of various financial situations look for their food buying in what he called "need states by opportunity."

Shopping decisions are seemingly no longer made by firm rules. Just because a household may frequently enjoy fine dining on a Saturday night, that doesn't mean the same family won't consider a Del Taco meal on a busy Wednesday night – or even on the way to the soccer game on Saturday afternoon. The challenge for Del Taco is to remind such potential diners of its strengths – value pricing and speed of service – while pitching fresher food preparation than its competitors.

"Consumers want to ability to self-select," Cappasola says.

To capture this perceived opportunity, Del Taco's refeshening has been in the works for more than a year with a controlling owner in Wall Street powerhouse Goldman Sachs. CEO Murphy – who took over in 2009 – realized that any new ad campaign wouldn't resonate if the chain didn't do something about the look of its aging stores. He concededsome outlets were, at best, dated.

Major overhaulswould cost the chain – or its franchisees – $250,000 or more per store. It today's era – with business owners watching pennies as tightly as their consumers – that would be a hard sell. So Del Taco created a trimmed-down fresh look featuring bright wall colors and graphics, shiny menu boards and padded bench seating, with a tab roughly 80 percent cheaper. To date, 60 percent of the chain's eateries are remodeled, with full rollout expected by year's end.

"We first had to get our own house in order," Murphy says. "It's hard to be credible about quality ... when it looks like your stores haven't had maintenance in years."

Then comes the hard part – filling the restaurants. Consumer research told Del Taco management that even loyal customers knew little of the chain's cooking efforts – such as the daily cooking of pinto beans from scratch and hand-shredding of cheese. The new ad campaign is designed to "call out our quality," the CEO says.

In one early test of the new logic, the chain retooled the popular fish taco in February. Adding beer-batter coating to the fish made the relaunch a better seller than the wildly successful original launch in 2005. Del Taco charges $3 for two fish tacos, almost half what some competitors charge. And the CEO notes, "we do that at a nice margin."

I'm interested to see how successful Del Taco is at using its value proposition as a sales weapon at a time when upscale twists are in play at the competition. Typically lower-priced Taco Bell has seen a huge sales boost with pricier Doritos-flavored taco shells. Chipotle – the "fast casual" burrito chain whose stock price has grown ninefold in five years – is adding premium tequila margaritas to its menu.

Going into the remake, Del Taco has decent sales momentum: three straight quarters of year-over-year growth in the key same-store sales metric, even in 2013's first quarter that was a struggle for many merchants. Privately held Del Taco's profitability is strong – that's all Murphy would say. Those financials, he noted, were good enough to complete a $215 million refinancing of its debts. Now, it's down to executing the marketing concept.

"The Great Recession has changed how people think," Murphy says. "We think there's more room for value."

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